Critic Rating

There is nothing spectacular about this unassuming watering hole, almost 70 years old, (Oly Pub started out as the Olympia Bar and Restaurant in 1947 and was rechristened in the early 80s) except, every evening it spills over with guests – locals (mostly college students and office-goers) and tourists alike. If you are visiting a friend in the city for the first time, you are most likely to get dragged to Oly, one of Park Street's surviving icons, for a feel of its ‘character’ (shabby interiors, laid-back atmosphere and loud conversations), the flowing pitchers of beer and a chance to rub shoulders with the city’s middle-class intellectuals who regularly convene here. That and the Chateaubriand beef steak, as iconic as the establishment itself, which comes with a fried egg on top.